Gloucester County to explore multi-million-dollar emergency radio upgrade

Before Gloucester County freeholders authorize an estimated $16 million radio frequency upgrade project, the board will launch an exploratory committee to investigate costs and other issues associated with the infrastructure upgrade.

Radio interference — which has lead to some “no comm” events, or radio black outs for police and fire departments — sparked the freeholder board to create the committee to research the costs and logistics of upgrading its public safety communication system.

“It makes for such a hazardous situation,” said Freeholder Director Robert Damminger Monday. “If you have someone on foot pursuit or a domestic dispute situation, and they can’t communicate with each other or back to base, it’s just a disastrous situation.”

Last year county dispatchers recorded 13 days in which “no comm” incidents occurred, according to Tom Butts, the county’s Emergency Management Office director.

“We had a situation where an officer in Mantua Township was out on foot pursuit, and wedidn’t know he was out of the car. We’ve had one in Monroe on a felony car stop, and we didn’t know he (the police officer) was out of the car,” Butts said. “It’s a very serious situation and the FCC (Federal Communications Commission) put us in a bind.”

Gloucester, and many other counties across the country, have been operating public safety radios on 500 MHz frequency systems. But since television went digital in 2009, some stations have been crossing over into the county’s public safety frequency space, according to Butts.

“It does cause severe interference, and there is nothing they (FCC) can do because the digital TV stations are acting within the (parameter) of their license,” he said.

The phenomena isn’t isolated in Gloucester County. Ocean and Camden counties were experiencing issues before Gloucester, and Camden is now in the thick of a conversion project that would update its infrastructure to handle a 700 MHz system. The first phase of the project there is expected to cost $14.6 million.

“They (the FCC) have been gradually nudging us to go to 700 MHz, and now we’re at the point where we don’t have much choice,” said Butts, adding that the county did get use the 500 MHz system to the end of its life. “As this evolves, I’m feeling more confident that we will get 15 to 20 years out of it, but we still have some questions we need answered.”

Once of the looming questions is whether the FCC will allow other entities — like digital TV — to buy space on the frequency spectrum.

The county would need a guarantee that the hefty infrastructure upgrade would last for decades without the same problems it is facing now.

“When we heard recently — in the past couple weeks — there is no guarantee this 700 MHz system is going to be just for us, why would we invest $16 million of Gloucester County money for guarantee?” asked Chad Bruner, county administrator.

The exploratory committee — which is expected to be made of fire, police, emergency medical service personnel, mayors and county representatives — is charged with nailing down the answer to that question. The group must also flesh out the full infrastructure and radio equipment costs for moving to the 700 MHz system.

Preliminary estimates have the project estimated at $16 million to add sites with radio towers, and a self-healing microwave ring, Butts said. About $2.5 to $3 million of the full project cost could be allocated for portable and mobile radio units. But the cost for municipalities and fire departments to equip their troops could be crushing.

“In Monroe Township, if we give them a couple radios, they are still looking at $300,000 to replace the rest. That’s a heck of a cost,” said Butts, who expects radio units to cost as much as $5,000 each.

The committee’s goal for this year is to report back by the end of 2012 with cost estimates and answers to the county’s outstanding questions.

“This isn’t something we can drag our feet on for two to three years,” Damminger said.

Waiting until the end of 2012 will give the county time to get the project in its capital plan for the following year, and will buy municipalities time to prepare for the cost of equipping its police and fire stations.

The Gloucester County Freeholder Board will vote at 7:30 p.m. tonight to form the exploratory committee. The meeting will be held in the Ceremonial Courtroom of the Old Court House in Woodbury.